2004 Football in review
Well, I'm back from my trip to the Tire Bowl, which I'm probably more bummed out about than I ought to be. It always eats at me more when I don't think the other team is just plain better than we are. BC is a pretty good, nothing special team with a great quarterback, which, come to think of it, isn't a bad description of the Tar Heels. Put another way, I think that on a talent level the teams were about even, and we got beat. It happens. BC deserved to win, because they outexecuted us. I just don't take it well.
6-6 has an "eech" ring to it that 7-5 would avoid, but no fairminded person could have looked at the team we began the season with and seen a bowl game of any kind facing the schedule we did. I think the extension given to Bunting was the right thing and my faith in him as the right guy for the long haul was restored after having been badly shaken by the UVa and Louisville debacles.
We lost to Utah, FSU, BC, Louisville, UVa, and Virginia Tech. Of those games, I'd like to get VT and BC back; the other 4 I think were not realistically winnable games (though I am tempted to include Va on my list, if we could have played them in the second half of the season). And, of course, we beat Miami in what is without question the biggest win I've ever seen in Kenan.
Yesterday, we just didn't have the same sharpness we had in the previous 4 games. Aside from the first quarter, I thought we looked fine, but we weren't playing with the same level of defensive aggressiveness I'd gotten accustomed to. We also picked a terrible game for our offensive line to turn in perhaps its only subpar game of the season. But those last 4 games happened, and it would be foolish to let the loss in what is ultimately a meaningless bowl game tarnish that fact. Being a great team was not a realistic goal for 2004. I think we were about as good as could have possibly been expected.
One note from the game: if you could have seen the BC kicker trying to practice field goals, you wouldn't have been caught off guard by the fake field goal. He may be the worst kicker on any major college team -- perhaps he's hurt or something, but he couldn't hit a thing, even in practice with no rush. Shame we couldn't take advantage.
6-6 has an "eech" ring to it that 7-5 would avoid, but no fairminded person could have looked at the team we began the season with and seen a bowl game of any kind facing the schedule we did. I think the extension given to Bunting was the right thing and my faith in him as the right guy for the long haul was restored after having been badly shaken by the UVa and Louisville debacles.
We lost to Utah, FSU, BC, Louisville, UVa, and Virginia Tech. Of those games, I'd like to get VT and BC back; the other 4 I think were not realistically winnable games (though I am tempted to include Va on my list, if we could have played them in the second half of the season). And, of course, we beat Miami in what is without question the biggest win I've ever seen in Kenan.
Yesterday, we just didn't have the same sharpness we had in the previous 4 games. Aside from the first quarter, I thought we looked fine, but we weren't playing with the same level of defensive aggressiveness I'd gotten accustomed to. We also picked a terrible game for our offensive line to turn in perhaps its only subpar game of the season. But those last 4 games happened, and it would be foolish to let the loss in what is ultimately a meaningless bowl game tarnish that fact. Being a great team was not a realistic goal for 2004. I think we were about as good as could have possibly been expected.
One note from the game: if you could have seen the BC kicker trying to practice field goals, you wouldn't have been caught off guard by the fake field goal. He may be the worst kicker on any major college team -- perhaps he's hurt or something, but he couldn't hit a thing, even in practice with no rush. Shame we couldn't take advantage.
posted by J at 11:24 PM
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